Full-Catastrophe Living Pt. I

[Guest guest]

" The stress clinic is not a rescue service in which people are passive

recipients of support and therapeutic advice. Rather it is a vehicle for active

learning, in which people can build on the strengths that they already have and

come to do something for themselves to improve their own health and well-being.

In this learning proces we assume from the start that as long as you are

breathing, there is more right with you than there is wrong, no matter how ill

or how hopeless you may feel. But if you hope to mobilize your inner capacities

for growth and for healing and to take charge in your life on a new level, a

certain kind of effort and energy on your part will be required. The way we put

it is that it can be stressful to take the Stress Reduction Program.

I sometimes explain this by saying that there are times when you have to light

one fire to put out another. There are no drugs that will make you immune to

stress or to pain or that will by themselves magically solve your life's

problems or promote healing. It will take conscious effort on your part to move

in a direction of healing and inner peace. This means learning to work with the

very stress and pain that is causing you to suffer.

The stress in our lives is now so great and so insidious that more and more

people are making the deliberate decision to understand it better and to bring

it under personal control. They realize the futility of waiting for someone else

to make things better for them. Such a personal commitment is all the more

important if you are suffering from a chronic illness or disability that imposes

additional stress in your life on top of the usual pressures of living.

The problem of stress does not admit to simpleminded solutions or quick fixes.

At root, stress is a natural part of living from which there is no more escape

than from the human condition itself. Yet some people try to avoid stress by

walling themselves off from life experience; others attempt to anesthetize

themselves one way or another to escape it. Of course, it is only sensible to

avoid undergoing unnecessary pain and hardship. Certainly we all need to

distance ourselves from our troubles now and again. But if escape and avoidance

become our habitual ways of dealing with our problems, the problems just

multiply. They don't magically go away. What does go away, or get covered over

when we tune out our problems or run away from them, is our power to grow and to

change and to heal. When it comes right down to it, facing our problems is

usually the only way to get past them.

There is an art to facing difficulties in ways that lead to effective solutions

and to inner peace and harmony. When we are able to mobilize our inner resources

to face our problems artfully, we find we are usually able to orient ourselves

in such a way that we can use the pressure of the problem itself to propel us

through it, just as a sailor can position a sail to make the best use of the

pressure of the wind to propel the boat. You can't sail straight into the wind,

and if you only know how to sail with the wind at your back, you will only go

where the wind blows you. But if you know how to use the wind's energy and are

patient, you can sometimes get where you want to go. You can still be in

control.

If you hope to make use of the force of your own problems to propel you in this

way, you will have to be tuned in, just as the sailor is tuned in to the feel of

the boat, the water, the wind, and his or her course. You will have to learn how

to handle yourself under all kinds of stressful conditions, not just when the

weather is sunny and the wind blowing exactly the way you want it to.

We all accept that no one controls the weather. Good sailors learn to read it

carefully and respect its power. They will avoid storms if possible, but when

caught in one, they know when to take down the sails, batten down the hatches,

drop anchor, and ride things out, controlling what is controllable and letting

go of the rest. Training, practice, and a lot of firsthand experience in all

sorts of weather are required to develop such skills so that they work for you

when you need them. Developing skill in facing and effectively handling the

various " weather conditions " in your life is what we mean by the art of

conscious living. "

This is an excerpt from the most excellent book called, " Full Catastrophe Living

-- Using the Wisdom of your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness " ,

written by

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., published by Dell Publishing (A Delta Book), copyright

1990, & July 1991.

** I highly recommend this book even though I believe it is now out of print. It

is worth searching for!!

--- The Program of the Stress Reduction Clinic At The University of

Massachusetts Medical Center

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AffirmationstoDe-Stress

A new positive thinking, positive affirmations support group, discussing ways to

cope with the stresses of daily life. Come aboard! (Affirmation Moderators)